The Dividend Guy’s Dividend Book Review

Mike from The Dividend Guy Blog recently launched an e-book on dividend growth investing. The Dividend Guy Blog is actually one of the original personal blogs in the dividend niche, and was purchased by Mike in 2010, who also runs other blogs, including the Financial Blogger.

What makes this book interesting is that it comes in two formats: a U.S. version and a Canadian version.

Any product in a competitive market place needs a unique selling proposition; something that makes it different. Now that’s from a marketing standpoint, but from a consumer standpoint, we all want a product that meets our specific needs as closely as possible.

Mike’s Unique Proposition

The reason I find Mike’s two-book split interesting is that it’s a great unique selling proposition, and therefore great for customers.

Most dividend books I’m familiar with, are written by Americans with Americans in mind as the target (largest) audience. Most of a book like that is applicable to anyone in any country, but some of the details will be different.

By splitting his book into two versions, one for Americans and one for Canadians (and Mike is in Canada), he can provide more direct information. So in the Canadian version, you’ll get Canadian stock examples, and discussions of the RRSP and TFSA rather than 401(k)’s and IRA’s.

Plus, because it’s a self-published electronic book, it can be more timely. There are screenshots of the stock screener he uses, screenshots of Google Finance, and so forth.

Investing and financial books in general are often not thought of as the most engaging and fun reads. But Mike keeps it concise in the 130-140 page range, and you’ll see terms like “The Dividend Growth Investor Jedi Code” and “FFO and AFFO: Less Funny But More Useful than LMFAO”, to inject some humor and casualness into a rather quantitative topic.

The information is useful, there’s a good segment on REITs, there’s very actionable content, and there’s a special version for Canadians. Another thing I like is his recommendation for 20-25 holdings, which is right about where my recommended sweet spot is as well. Some dividend investors hold or recommend more than that, which is fine, but I personally agree with Mike’s argument for this number of positions.

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[…] The Dividend Guy Blog launched an ebook – two versions in fact! I will provide a review of his work within the next couple of weeks. On the topic of this ebook, Dividend Monk already reviewed this dividend book from the Dividend Guy. […]